Jobless rate for veterans continues decline in June

Jul. 5, 2013 - 06:00AM
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The national unemployment rate remained unchanged in June, but veterans of the post-9/11 era saw a continued decline in their jobless rate, which fell to 7.2 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

The jobless rate for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans has fallen for the fifth straight month. In January, the rate for post-9/11 veterans was 11.7 percent. By May, it had dropped to 7.3 percent.

Overall, veterans continue to be employed at higher rates than the genral population. The jobless rate for veterans of all ages was 6.3 percent in June while the national unemployment rate remained at 7.6 percent for the third month in a row.

In May, the unemployment rate for veterans of all eras was 6.6 percent.

The economy gained about 195,000 jobs in June, largely in areas related to tourism, including leisure and hospitality, as well as retail, health care and the financial sector, according to the report.

Roughly 4.3 million people in the U.S. are considered to be “long-term unemployed,” meaning they’ve been jobless for more than six months. That statistic remained essentially static in June.

The June jobless rate for male veterans was 6.1 percent; for women, 7.6 percent.

The jobless rate for post-9/11 male veterans was 6.8 percent, down from 7.8 percent in May. The rate for post-9/11 female veterans appears to have nearly doubled from May, from 4.9 percent to 8.9 percent. Historically, however, the rates for that demographic have fluctuated wildly from month to month, perhaps due to the small sample size in the survey.

While the unemployment rate of post-9/11 veterans continues to decline, this generation continues to have the highest rates of unemployment among veterans.

In June, the jobless rate for Persian Gulf War veterans was 4.9 percent, for World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans still in the job market, 6.1 percent, and for veterans of other service periods, 7 percent.